feAture john baldessari
your work.” And finally I said, “Lawrence, you know, I can change what I get off the wall. Which is stupid, of course; it’s just a convention. But
I’m doing any time I want. You can’t.” That shut him up. it’s there. I just saw this adherence to the wall as about the marketplace;
it just takes up less room.
But you have a signature?
This sounds like the 1960s creeping back in. Much minimalist art
Well, I think any artist has, because it’s who that person is. Yes, I hope wanted to ‘get off the wall’, so to speak, though now a lot of it looks
I do. But on the other hand, I feel I can do whatever I want to do. I quaint in comparison to what’s being made today.
just did sculpture. And the guy I was working with on these sculptures
tried to give it a look that would be identified with me, and I said no, That’s because art has become more entertainment, and those things
I’m sorry, but that would be adding something to the idea. So he went just aren’t entertaining. I’m on the board of trustees at MOCA – not
along with it. But I don’t think you can look at these things and know that I go, but I do go to a few meetings – and you realise when you
that I did them. I’ll tell you what they are. They’re six-foot ears, they’re get in there, in the midst of it, that these museums are about ticket
on the wall and they have a replica of one of Beethoven’s ear trumpets sales, and they have to have blockbusters. So what are we doing at
coming out of them. You can talk into it and say, “Wie geht’s, Ludwig?” MOCA? – Murakami. Man, that is going to bring them in. Now do
or whatever you want to say, and each one is programmed with one you think if you had an Ad Reinhardt show that that would bring them
of his last quartets, which he composed when he was deaf, and it will in? I don’t think so. Could you see a Reinhardt on a billboard? But it’s
play back segments of the music. I don’t think if anyone saw those they more and more like that. And it’s perfect. Because there’s a huge Asian
would know. But something of my sensibility I hope comes through. community: that’s going to bring them in. Murakami is like Warhol:
that’s going to bring them in. And then this argument – I had to laugh
So much of your work has challenged certain conventions of art- – but Paul Schimmel said, “We’re going to have this Vuitton shop, and
making, or ontology of art, between what is and what’s not legible it’s going to be functional, because that’s part of his practice”, and I
as art… said, “Well wait a minute, part of your practice, alright, so you have the
same show – but one of [Adolf] Wölfli, are you going to have a mental
I think this comes from teaching, because that’s essentially what I do institution inside?” No, you wouldn’t have to, it is a mental institution!
teach, which is to question conventional wisdom.
The inmates are running the asylum.
So to put the question bluntly, how does this new work question
conventional wisdom? Really.
Well, on my own level, that’s always been something I figure I couldn’t John Baldessari is mentoring Alejandro Cesarco as part of the Rolex
do: sculpture. I don’t think that way. But then I thought, at my age, what Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. See Listings for further details
the hell, I can do whatever I want to do. If I fall on my ass, so what?
Whereas before I may have been a bit more cautious in my work, I’ve
been getting more and more three-dimensional, using low relief, and
so I thought: why not? But if I say “sculpture”, I still get scared. If I think IMAGES
about it as an object, or a thing, it’s a little bit easier. Sculpture still just
(In ordEr of AppEArAncE)
terrorises me. John Baldessari at the Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon,
London, 13–14 october 2007
photo: © Alastair fyfe
Because then you have to deal with sculptors. [Laughter]
Blockage (Blue):
With Three Persons (One with Tie Orange), 2004
Yes, and then I had this crazy idea in my mind, which of course you’re three-dimensional digital archival print with acrylic paint on Sintra,
going to laugh at, which is that I really will not have gotten there until
dibond and Gatorfoam panels, 229 x 180 cm
Arms & Legs (Specif. Elbows & Knees), etc:
Three Arms (Two with Flowers) and Statue, 2007
three-dimensional archival print laminated with Lexan and mounted
on Sintra with acrylic paint, 152 x 156 cm
Beethoven’s Trumpet: In One Ear & Out the Same Ear, 2007
(installation view). photo: Ben Gill. courtesy Arts club of chicago
Arms & Legs (Specif. Elbows & Knees), etc:
Three Elbows (One Blue), 2007
three-dimensional archival print laminated with Lexan and mounted
on Sintra with acrylic paint, 152 x 391 cm
Noses & Ears, etc. (Part Two):
Two (Red) Faces with Noses and Ear and (Blue) Hand and Foodstuffs, 2006
three-dimensional archival digital photographic prints with
acrylic paint, 182 x 269 x 10 cm
Arms & Legs (Specif. Elbows & Knees), etc:
Arm and Plaid Jacket (Green), 2007
three-dimensional archival print laminated with Lexan and mounted
on Sintra with acrylic paint, 152 x 229 cm
All works
courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, new York and paris
57 Artreview
John Baldessari.indd 57 4/12/07 16:36:03
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